Former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio says President Joe Biden and his campaign team defamed him in a social media post published during former President Donald Trump's recent rally in Phoenix.
Arpaio, 92, claims the post from Biden's campaign account falsely accused him of being a "convicted felon" who "abused immigrants." The post was originally written in Spanish and came as Trump called Arpaio to the stage at the June event.
As sheriff, Arpaio became known nationwide for his unapologetic and controversial crackdown on illegal immigration . In 2013, his office was found by a federal judge to have unconstitutionally profiled Latino drivers.
District Judge Susan Bolton handed him a misdemeanor criminal contempt conviction in 2017 after she found Arpaio had previously defied a court order to halt the practice of detaining immigrants simply because they lacked legal status. Trump later pardoned him .
"Trump trae al escenario a Joe Arpaio, un criminal convicto que fue perdonado por Trump después de que perfiló racialmente y abusó de inmigrantes," the post read.
In his suit, Arpaio translates "un criminal convicto" as "a convicted felon." His complaint contains a screenshot of a translation from Google. But "un criminal convicto" generally translates as "a convicted criminal."
Arpaio is now running in the Fountain Hills mayoral race . His suit asks for $7 million in damages, alleging the Biden campaign's social media post is "extremely harmful" to his reputation and "did severely harm" his chances of getting elected in the Northeast Valley town.
A spokesperson for Biden declined to comment on the suit.
Sasha Hupka covers county government and election administration for The Arizona Republic. Reach her at sasha.hupka@arizonarepublic.com . Follow her on X, formerly Twitter: @SashaHupka . Follow her on Instagram or Threads: @sashahupkasnaps .
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Former Sheriff Joe Arpaio sues Biden campaign for defamation over social media post
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